Platform Specific Smartspeaker Ads Are Coming

Audio ads on connected home devices such as smartspeakers have been around for years. However, up until now most audience targeting has been directed towards generic “CE” (Consumer Electronic) segments, which could include any device in a home which carries content and can run an ad. For this segment think of devices like Sonos, Roku, etc.. The reason all these devices were grouped together had to do with scale – since users were fragmented over so many different devices they needed to be lumped together in order to create meaningful scale.

Now things are starting to change. With the mass adoption of smartspeakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, audio publishers are beginning to offer device-specific targeting. Pandora is the best example of a pureplay streamer who’s now enabling ad targeting on Echo and Google Home devices. This level of targeting provides a significant benefit to brands looking to stand out in the connected home environment – yes CPG brands, I’m talking to you!

With the massive spike in smartspeaker ownership and usage, it makes sense that brands would want to be front and center in this new media environment. Now publishers like Pandora are making this tool available on a smartspeaker near you.